Introducing Music Xray’s new Tip Jar for Musicians

As part of Music Xray’s new Fan Match service, every artist account will now have its very own tip jar. The tip jar will have it own URL so you can link to it from anywhere, tweet it, post it on Facebook, mail it… you name it – and you’ll be able to set it along side any one of your tracks when you send it to your fans to hear.

In other words, whenever you send a new song out to your fans, your tip jar can go right along beside it.

If fans decide to tip you, instead of simply choosing a dollar amount (which might result in 50 cent tips), there is a dropdown menu with fun little icons that represent items we musicians like to receive, and the typical cost of those items, including the average cost of a song submission to an industry professional via Music Xray.

Yes. Now your fans can help you offset the cost of forwarding your career! They can even set their tips to recur monthly!! We thought you’d like that!

You see? It’s a fun and nice way to encourage those who support to, well, show their support.

You can customize your tip jar as well by disabling items you don’t want to appear as tipping options. You can rename the cheeseburger to veggie burger if you’d like. It’s a fun little way of passing the hat online that we think can really make a difference each time you send a new song to your fan base. Hey, we all know how hard it is to make a living these days as a musician and we think your true fans will be more than happy to show you a little love in the form of an occasional tip.

It’s important for us to manage expectations, so we want to be up front with you that PayPal charges about 5% for transaction costs. You know, because they make it possible for people to tip with their credit and debit cards. Don’t worry, we’re working with them to keep costs to a minimum. It’s also not free to keep the lights on here at Music Xray and feed our developers who build this complex stuff. But, we’ve figured out a way whereby we also don’t have to take more than 5%. Hey, if PayPal can make it work with such a small margin, we figure we can too. Now, we know no one likes to give up 10% of their tips but it’s not a bad deal when you figure it provides you with a way to pass the hat (uh, make that “jar”) worldwide.

We’d love to know what you think so leave us some comments. We’ll be launching it in a few days. Would you use it when introducing a new song or perhaps when circulating an old favorite to your fans?

Mike McCready is an entrepreneur at the crossroads of music and technology. He pioneered the introduction of Hit Song Science into the music industry and followed up with Music Xray, the company he co-founded and serves as CEO. His companies have been the subject of case studies at Harvard Business School, IESE and he frequently guest speaks at many of the top business schools around the world. He helps the music industry identify high potential songs and talent and helps musicians get deals, get fans, & get better: http://musicxray.com